Water Profile Question?

[Brasseur]

I brew all-grain for a couple of years and I have got a strange problematic.
I brewed the exact same beer, same grain, same equipement, same yeast, two weeks apart. I loved that IPA recipe. Usually I brew at home (with municipal water supply), but that time I decided to brew at my country house where I pump the water directly from the ground, I thought it would be cool to brew with fresh spring water from the mountain...The results was strange...The first one from city is pale yellow like 3-5 SRM with hoppier taste, the second one from the country Orange hue 12-15 SRM less hoppier...First I thought it was oxyidized, but both did taste really good. I brew a second one during my vacation an APA and it got that orange hue also...is it possible that I am dealing with alcaline water at my country house? high Iron level?

 

[doug293cz]

I don't know if alkaline water would affect the color that much, but I suppose it depends on just what is in the water. Well water is often high in hardness, alkalinity, and sometimes really undesirable ions like iron or manganese. You should really get an analysis done on your well water if you want to keep brewing with it. Then you will be able to compensate for the shortcomings of the water by using Brun'Water (or similar software) to adjust the ionic profile and mash pH.

If you are in the USA, Ward labs is the go to for water analysis, outside the USA, I wouldn't know where to get the analysis done.

Brew on

 

[mabrungard]

If it was iron, you would have tasted the tell-tale metallic, bloody flavor.

Yes, if the country water has higher alkalinity, that would drive your mashing and wort pH higher. Higher pH does result in increased color extraction from the grain and darker wort. It also affects the extraction and utilization of hop components in the beer.